Wednesday, 18 March 2009

A surprisingly warm sunny morning sparked a return trip to the Cretaceous-Jurassic exposures near Harrison Lake, British Columbia. The lake and hotsprings at Harrison are an easy one to two hour drive from Vancouver. My work leads me a ways past the town exploring logging roads along the lake.

Without goggles you could easily lose an eye working the unyielding siltstones. Much of my collecting was spent wincing as small, bullet-like projectiles went pinging past my face… others making contact but not enough to deter my efforts. No pain no gain.

After a few hours of work I've done pretty well. Looking down at my pack I'd managed to unearth a fine selection of ammonites of the Callovian Mysterious Creek Formation, including the small, fairly well preserved Cadoceras (Paracadoceras) tonniense and smallish Cadoceras (Pseudocadoceras) grewingki. The other bits and pieces were mostly fragments but included one relatively complete specimen of the larger, smooth Cadoceras comma and some perfectly preserved belemnites, cigar-looking numbers from ancient squid. For interest, I've popped in an image of an ammonite from Fernie. I'll post one of the ones from Harrison when I did out my digital.

Interestingly, the ammonites from here are quite similar to the ones found within the lower part of the Chinitna Formation, Alaska and Jurassic Point, Kyuquot, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I'll have to write up the trip I did with the VIPS to Kyuquot a few years back. We enjoyed fantastic scenery and wild west coast adventures. I'd like it on record that that was not the trip the coast guard had to be called, but it remains memorable from the great company, fantastic fossils and the fact that my car was stolen at some point. Ah, living.

The siltstone here at Harrison has also offered up a small section of vertebra from a poorly preserved marine reptile, a find I'm rather keen to make one day. So, after much hammer swinging, I've enjoyed a splendid day, collected beautiful specimens and feel a wee bit closer to the big find. Returning like a soldier from battle, I carefully package and log my booty, returning home the happier for it.

I'll be heading back to the fossil beds of the Myseterious Creek Formation at Harrison on Monday, May 18, 2009, as part of a fossil field trip for the 2009 BC Paleontological Symposium. If you're about, feel free to pop by and say hello. I drive the big black tank, and yes, it's alarmed!

PALEONTOLOGICAL GEMS

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FOUR RAINDROPS...

Four individual raindrops falling on the high peaks of the Rockies could easily end up thousands of miles apart -- one flowing north to the Beaufort Sea, another reaching the the Gulf of Mexico, a third would be absorbed into Hudson Bay to the east and the last into the vast Pacific.

TYAUGHTON FOSSIL FIELD TRIP

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WEST COAST AMMONITE - VIPS

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KITSILANO KANE

GODS OF THE SEA

Ammonites were a group of hugely successful aquatic molluscs that looked like the still extant Nautilus, a coiled shellfish that lives off the southern coast of Asia. While the Nautilus lived on, ammonites graced our waters from around 400 million years ago until the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years.

COHO FISHING | SEYMOUR INLET

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FOSSILS OF THE WORLD

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CUDDLY CUTIE PIES

Building British Columbia

Some 270 million plus years ago, had one wanted to buy waterfront property in what is now British Columbia, you’d be looking somewhere between Prince George and the Alberta border.

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FOSSILHUNTRESS TRACKS

HEIDI, DANIEL & CHARLES HELM

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MYOMANCY | MICE PREDICTOR

Myomancy was a method of divination by mice. Their behaviour was observed and taken as a omen of what was to come. Modern scientists study the movements of mice more than the ancient myomancers did and for ends that are not dissimilar.

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DIATRYMA TRACKWAY

Rare bird, reptile and mammal tracks have been immortalized in the outcrops of the Chuckanut Formation. Diatryma tracks have also been found there. These massive flightless birds reached up to 9 feet in height and made a living in the grasslands and swamps of the Eocene.

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TROPICAL CHUCKANUT

The siltstones, sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates of the Chuckanut Formation were laid down about 40-54 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, a time of luxuriant plant growth in the subtropical flood plain that covered much of the Pacific Northwest.

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OLYMPIC PENINSULA

One of the most beautiful drives in the Pacific Northwest is the coastline along the Olympic Peninsula from Port Angeles to Neah Bay. This stretch of road meanders alongside the Clallam Formation, a thick, mainly marine sequence of sandstones and siltstones that line the northwestern margin of the Olympic Peninsula, western Washington.

DINOSAUR TRACK

oregon paleontology

The Farallon Plate took a turn north some 57 million years ago, sweeping much of western coastal Oregon along with it. By the middle Oligocene, the Cascadia Subduction Zone was in full force with growing pressure erupting volcanoes along the Western Cascades, a pattern that was to continue well into the Miocene. The soft ocean sediments of Oregon contain beautifully preserved gastropods, bivalves and cephalopods.

CANCER FUNDRAISER 2011

rain or shine

Rain long foretold takes a long time to pass; if it arrives on short notice, it soon will pass. For the folks I go out collecting with all hikes, digs and kayak trips are rain or shine. Safety is always top of mind and prepping for the weather is paramount. Keep yourself safe whatever part of the world you choose to explore. For forecasts of marine weather in Vancouver call 604.666.3655 or visit http://www.weatheroffice.com/

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ARTWORK BY TINA BEARD

Tina Beard is an artist and paleo enthusiast on Vancouver Island. She does some of the most exquisite artwork I've had the pleasure to behold.